Damakant Jayshi

County officials will seek nominations to represent Marathon County’s Dist. 24 after a newly elected supervisor resigned, citing personal reasons.

The resignation came just one month after Peter C. Hansen was voted into office. Hansen, who filed candidacy papers on the last day of an extended deadline in January, was elected April 4 and resigned May 3.

The county’s nine-member Executive Committee was divided on the route to fill the vacant seat – whether to hold an election or fill it through an appointment as per the board rules. Past vacancies have been filled by seeking letters of interest from residents of the district and appointments made after interviewing the applicants.

County Clerk Kim Trueblood said it would be difficult to hold an election during the state’s primaries in August since the ballot paper is already too long. Trueblood informed committee members that an election to fill out the vacancy could be done during the mid-terms in November if the board so desired.

After the clerk’s briefing, some committee members felt that a new election should be held so that the electorate can have a say since the two-year term just started. Other members said that keeping the seat vacant until November would deprive Dist. 24 constituents of representation and the Board should instead solicit letters of interest from potential candidates within the district. By a 5-4 margin, the Committee voted to seek letters of interest. The full board will approve the appointment.

Candidates interested in the position can file letters of interest by May 31. A recommendation to the full board is expected on June 21.

Hansen, who was also elected to a three-year term on the Mosinee School Board, did not offer details on his decision to resign just weeks into the new term. He will retain his role in Mosinee.

“After getting elected some issues came up, personal ones, so I resigned,” Hansen told Wausau Pilot & Review.

Incumbent Brent Jacobson did not file a notice of noncandidacy or a declaration of candidacy by their respective deadlines, Dec. 24 and Jan. 4. Jacobson, who is also mayor of Mosinee and is a candidate for the State Legislature, had represented Dist. 26 in the last term but his district changed after the redistricting of the seats based on Census 2020.